


Elizabeth be Nimble

by musesmistress



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-14
Updated: 2013-02-14
Packaged: 2017-11-29 06:22:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/683826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/musesmistress/pseuds/musesmistress
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for stargateland.livejournal.com prompt: Elizabeth, Nimble</p>
            </blockquote>





	Elizabeth be Nimble

Stackhouse was surprisingly gentle. It was the only thing Elizabeth could think as she watched him wipe around the thorn sting on her hand. She hadn't been thinking that way earlier, though that probably had something to do with him squeezing the thorn out. This was supposed to be one of those easy missions - return to planet, chat with inhabitants, and start the basis for an alliance. It was rare that she got to be the spokes person on such a mission and every time she'd put herself in that position things had always gone wrong. She made a mental note to scrap the label "easy mission" and replace it with "likely to get messed up".

The gate had opened out on a beautiful garden of colourful flowers and well tended shrubs. It had the obvious desired effect of making people feel welcomed and comfortable. Despite this being an arranged meeting, no one showed to meet them and guide them to the village, something Major Lorne found very worrying as their first visit had been met with three people with weapons to protect themselves. John's danger radar had gone into overdrive and he'd kept close to her side as they looked around the area. It always annoyed her when he did that, add himself to another team so he could keep an eye on her and then glue himself to her heals so she walked into him or tripped over his feet now and again. She'd even gone so far this time as to push him back two steps and tell him if he needed to be neurotic to do so at a distance. Hadn't completely worked, but at least she could turn without finding herself pressed against him. Wait... why was she complaining again?

When no one arrived, they started walking for the village, Lorne and his team ahead of them, leading the way and John once again on her heels. She had started to feel like he was a lost puppy, either that or a stalker. She'd shoved that feeling aside as they turned down the track and Lorne looked back to shout over his shoulder.

"Mind the bushes on the left. Looks like the thorns are sharp."

Instinctively, and somewhat annoyingly, John had edged her over to the right side as if she were a disobedient child who couldn't listen to instruction. She'd let out an exasperated sigh and carried on, keeping to the right to avoid having him confront her - though she had to admit, the temptation to move over just to test him was almost too much to resist.

About halfway there, Lorne and one of his men had backtracked to see if someone was following them or if there had been any signs of life nearby. Elizabeth turned to her right, her hand brushing against the bush nearest her and she'd felt the sharp sting of one of the thorns slip through the back of her hand. She'd gasped and both John and Stackhouse had turned to look as she brought the hand up to inspect it. She'd been surprised at the time to see it embedded so far into her hand from such a slight touch. They moved on to the clearing and Stackhouse had grabbed the med pack as she made her way to the rock to sit down.

She'd felt dizzy with the pain of the sting to start with, but it had passed. Now she felt horribly sick. She said nothing though, not wanting these men to worry or treat her like a weak woman who couldn't stand a little pain. She checked over her shoulder at John again. The fact that he was standing behind her was starting to grate on her nerves, barely a minute passed before she checked on him again.

"What's wrong?" he asked. Elizabeth shook her head and turned back to watch Stackhouse wrap the bandage around her hand. She caught movement to one side and turned to look at the other member of the team who was with them. The action made her wonder about Lorne and Peters. Both men had backtracked some time ago and shouldn't have taken that long to catch them up.

She turned sharply to look at the other side of the clearing when movement caught her eye and she knew John had shifted as well. Someone was watching her, just like John was.

"Doctor Weir?" The tone in Stackhouse's voice was all questioning, but something tweaked in her mind that there was a little bit of deception laced in it. She shuddered at the idea that they were plotting against her. Maybe they'd let her come here on purpose. They could let the inhabitants take her and have Atlantis to themselves. A Military coup.

Trying hard to steady herself, she gave Stackhouse a reassuing smile as she listened to John talk quietly to someone behind her. He was making a trade for her. She would not be sold, not by him or any member of her military. Her military, not his. She had to get away from them, get back to Atlantis, but if she went back she had no way of telling if he had planted an operative waiting there to raise the shield and kill her.

She took a deep breath, feeling the buzz of fear and tried hard to think of something to do. She knew one thing, she had to escape and she had to do it now before John could hand her over. With a swift movement, she shoved Stackhouse to the side, slipped off the rock, and shot towards the treeline on the other side of the clearing.

"Elizabeth," John called, but she didn't care to stop or look behind her. 

\--

John couldn't believe his eyes, he had never in his wildest imagination considered that Elizabeth could move like this. Quick as anything he could think of and twice as nimble. She moved through the forest as if she had lived there all her life, ducking low branches, hopping over fallen ones or other debris and weaving in and out as though her brain was a map and the route had been planned and studied years ago. She was either keeping secrets from him about her work outs, or she was going to be sore as hell when this was over.

He felt the sharp sting of a branch across his cheek as he tried desperately to keep up with her. She turned again, vanishing for a second behind a rise of rocks before he followed her around it along the face of what looked like the start of a mountain. He didn't stop to think about it though; trying to catch Elizabeth Weir was proving more and more difficult by the second. Either he was slowing down or she was getting faster.

He'd had to be quick in the first place, shouting at Cole to go back to Atlantis for a jumper and Stackhouse to stay put with open radio and try to contact Lorne. If their dissapearance wasn't enough, now he had Elizabeth running from him as though he was a kidnapper with a knife. Granted, he had a knife, but still, that wasn't the point. What if that plant had done more than just injure her. The venom could have drugged her crazy, if her paranoid behaviour earlier was anything to go by. 

Ahead of him, Elizabeth stumbled. John pushed himself a littler harder, using her misstep as a chance to catch her up and almost whooped in joy when she tripped over a log. The gap was quickly closed and he gripped her arm, perhaps a little harder than he should have, and pulled her to her feet. 

"Elizabeth," he tried, pulling her roughly towards the rock face to his right. "Listen to me. Whatever's going on in your head, you have to go back to Atlantis with me."

She shook her head at him and started to babble at him, pressing a hand to his chest in an attempt to push him away. It took him a moment to realise she'd switched from French to Spanish and quickly in to Arabic without so much as a pause. It shocked him, and in the moment of confusion, Elizabeth's knee came up sharply and made contact with his groin. He didn't get time to react before she turned and ran again, slipping in the mud and stumbling only a few paces before she slipped back down into the mud.

Pulling himself up against the rock, John quickly turned and approached. He knew he didn't have much time to react now. She had a way past him and there was no way he was letting her get the upper hand - or upper knee in this case - for a second time. He slipped, stopping for a split second to notice that the ground below his feet was more of a swamp than a mud patch. He moved quickly, stumbling once more as he approached, pleased that she hadn't made it to her feet just as he pounced, pinning her to the ground and only giving her enough room to turn onto her back before he hooked his feet over her knees to stop any painful movements.

"Elizabeth." This time he practically yelled at her to get her attention before grabbing her wrists and pinning her to the mud. "Elizabeth." This time he was firm, but didn't shout. She continued to babble at him in several langauges and he picked up several words that made absolutely no sense to him.

Giving up on trying to get through to her, John released one hand and reached for his radio only for her to knock his hand and the radio out of reach. John cursed loudly and turned back to Elizabeth, now completely annoyed at how things were going.

"No one's trying to kill you," he barked, picking up on the phrase 'get rid of me' in German. She stopped, finally looking at him.

"You're not John Sheppard," she said, finally talking to him in a language he could understand. "You're not John." He couldn't figure out what was going on with her, but he needed to convince her he was still him.

"Your birthday is October 14th," he started. "You like oranges and collect ornaments of deities."

"No."

"You have a birthmark on your right thigh." If she remembered this conversation later, he'd have to explain just how he knew that. "Your mother thinks you're in Afganistan helping set up their new government. Your cousin died of lukemia when she was thirteen."

"No. No. No."

"You hate the colour green and you rally against guns because a kid at school tried to kill one of the teachers because he got a D in a math test." Elizabeth let out a roar of frustration and started ranting in a mixture of languages again. He was quickly running out of facts. "You've been pregnant once in your life, but lost it when the father beat you." She stopped again, but only long enough to shout again that he wasn't John Sheppard. He was searching desperately for things she'd told him recently, things he could to convince her better. He could only think of one thing and instinctively leaned in and kissed her.

Her free hand came up out of no where and collided painfully with the side of his head. It knocked him off guard and slightly off her. Enough, he realised a moment too late, to free one leg and she used it to hook over his hip and shove him to the side. She scrambled up to her feet and turned to run. John reached out for her, but barely had his arm extended when the stunner blast hit her and she crumpled back to the ground.

\--

Elizabeth pried her eyes open to look around the infirmary. She had a vivid memory of hitting John, so vivid it was playing on a loop in her head. Everything felt hazy, almost like a dream, but she knew that everything she'd done had been real. She'd hit Stackhouse, kicked him as she ran off and then kneed John in a very sensitive place before clubbing him over the head. And for some reason, it all felt completely justified.

"Hey, sleeping beauty." Elizabeth turned to see John sitting on the bed beside her. "Pleasant dreams?"

"Not really," she said honestly, before the kiss flooded her brain. She couldn't help but lick her lips. "What happened?"

"That thorn was more than sharp. It released some chemical that made you a little..."

"Crazy?" she offered.

"I was gonna say paranoid," he said with a nod. Silence fell for a moment as Elizabeth tried to put the whole thing in order.

"John," she asked a moment later. "How do you know where my birthmark is?" She watched him lick his lips as he tried to come up with an answer that she would accept.

"Accidentally..." he paused. "Last time we were on one of these new ally missions you had to change and I didn't want to leave you there alone. I was close enough to hear you and when you tripped, I turned and...." Elizabeth nodded.

"And my cousin?"

"Talked to your mom before we left Earth, trying to figure out who I would be working for."

"Is that how you know about the boy at school?" John nodded. "And the baby?" He nodded again.

"I'm sorry," he started. "I know those were none of my business and I shouldn't have used them to get your attention but..."

"John," she asked, stopping him. "Why did you kiss me?"

He smiled, letting out a huff of laughter. "A few months ago, after those aliens tried to kill each other... us... you said you didn't regret it."

"I don't," she said, sounding just as confident now as she did then. "I don't regret that one either," she added softly just before Carson appeared to shoo him out of the room and tell her to rest. She sighed, wishing that she'd been in her right mind of both those moments.


End file.
